Samsung’s Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge Can Hot-Swap SIM Cards

No matter what type of user you may be, you’ve probably pulled the SIM card out of your phone at one point or another before. Perhaps it’s become unseated after a nasty drop and has to be taken out and put back in. Perhaps you’re taking your unlocked phone with you to a new carrier. Perhaps you’re switching to your personal line at the end of a busy and well-connected work day. Whatever the reason, most Android phones would require you to restart your phone, either upon removal or before a new SIM card can be used. There have been some phones over the years, however, that allow you to place SIM cards in and out as you please without rebooting. The latest to offer that capability are Samsung’s new flagships, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, joining the likes of HTC and Apple models.

With the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge offering dual-SIM configurations outside of the normal core markets for the feature, the inclusion of hot swapping only seems logical. Users with two SIM cards on hand may have more, or they may want to swap the main and backup lines at any time. With this feature on hand, they can now do so without missing a beat or having any downtime. Simply pop out the old SIM from a slot, pop in a new SIM and you’re on your way.

This move is a first for Samsung flagships outside of the core dual-SIM markets like China, which means we could be seeing the beginning of a new trend for Samsung. A boon for power users, business professionals and tons of other groups, this new feature is sure to drive even more sales to the new flagship handsets, which are already performing quite well in the market despite their official release still being days away. Seeing the feature hit markets outside of the norm also carries the benefit of allowing Samsung to manufacture one core variant of each phone and simply allow carriers to customize it on the software side, although there is still a dichotomy between a version fueled by a Qualcomm processor and Samsung’s own in-house Exynos chip.